Past Exhibitions

This large-scale retrospective presented an in-depth study of one of America’s greatest and most influential fashion designers. It was organized by guest curator Jeffrey Banks and MFITs deputy director Patricia Mears.

Born in 1900, Norman Norell had an extraordinary career that spanned six decades. Working in the theater, film, and fashion industries, he incorporated the highest quality couture construction techniques and workmanship in all of his designs. Norell won numerous industry awards and was the first American to launch his own perfume. Not only did he spearhead the concept of luxe ready-to-wear decades before his European contemporaries, but many of his classic works are still wearable today. Decades after his death, Norell’s legacy lives on.

Read more about Norell.

Pockets and purses provide immediate access to personal possessions, satisfying the need to carry money and other useful objects. They can also display luxury or emphasize fashionable gestures. Pockets to Purses: Fashion + Function was organized by graduate students in FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies program. The exhibition explored the history of pockets and purses as fashionable and functional objects that have evolved to accommodate the demands of modern life.

Arranged chronologically, a selection of objects from the collection of The Museum at FIT analyzed the interplay between pockets and purses in both men’s and women’s wardrobes from the eighteenth century to the present. Themes of public versus private, fashion versus function, and masculine versus feminine were explored through garments, accessories, fashion plates, and video footage. Highlights included an early nineteenth century reticule fashioned from a man’s waistcoat pocket, a 1930’s Cartier clutch, a Bonnie Cashin raincoat, and an Hermés Kelly Bag.

Pockets to Purses: Fashion + Function was the first exhibition to examine both men’s and women’s pockets and bags in tandem. It highlighted their overlapping history, clarifying the relationship between pocket and purse for a wide audience. The diversity of objects demonstrated how pockets and purses have been utilized throughout history and how lifestyle changes have affected their design and use. This exhibition encouraged visitors to see the significance of these familiar, but dynamic objects.

Read more about Pockets to Purses.

The third annual Creative Technology and Design exhibition, #EXPERIENCE, focused on the exploration of new possibilities in Experience Design. This exhibition showcased the most innovative design projects from FIT’s Creative Technology courses, such as Digital Typography, Content-centric App Design, Kinetic Typography, User Experience Design, and Design for Web-based Interface. 

The exhibition concept was conceived by the co-coordinators of the Creative Technology program, Christie Shin and C.J. Yeh. The call for submissions was announced in September 2017, and the jury panel reviewed more than 150 projects in order to select the best for the exhibition. The categories for submission included digital typography, content design, digital product design, interaction design, and user experience design. Every project in the exhibition demonstrated creative and innovative uses of Experience Design principles. To demonstrate the link between these student projects and current industry practices, selected professional projects from the alumni, faculty, and advisory board members of the program were also on view.

Expedition: Fashion from the Extreme examined high fashion inspired by clothing made for survival in the most inhospitable environments on earth and beyond. Today’s luxurious parkas trace their roots to the “heroic era” of polar navigation (1890 to 1922), while down-filled “puffer” coats and backpacks were originally perfected for extreme mountain climbing in the mid-twentieth century. Experimental, high tech materials made for exploration to otherworldly realms — such as neoprene (deep sea) and Mylar (outer space) — made their way onto the runway.

Expeditions to these extreme environments were motivated primarily by interest in the natural world that flourished during the Victorian era. Thanks to the theoretical works of Charles Darwin and the wildly popular science fiction books by Jules Verne, expeditions became increasingly popular, aspirational endeavors.

On view in Expedition was a historical fur garment created in Siberia, as well as adaptations of indigenous Arctic clothing by the pioneering American explorer, Matthew Henson. Also included were the earliest down-filled jackets, dating to the 1930s, and other technologically experimental objects engineered for polar and mountain exploration. These expedition-worthy garments are placed alongside a range of fantastic and outrageous fashions from the 1960s, as well as a dramatic selection of contemporary designs.

Expedition: Fashion from the Extreme is also the title of the exhibition’s companion book, published by Thames & Hudson.

Read more about Expedition: Fashion from the Extreme.

According to creative legend Bill Bernbach, “Principles endure, formulas don’t. You must get attention to your ad. This is a principle that will always be true. How you get attention is a subtle, ever-changing thing.”

This exhibition of Advertising Design at FIT showcases the award winning work that garnered the attention of the creative professionals in the advertising industry.

Force of Nature examined how the beauty and complexity of the natural world inspired fashion designers for centuries. The exhibition placed more than 95 objects from MFIT’s permanent collection, dating from the 18th century to the present, within a context of period philosophies and scientific literature in order to demonstrate the deep interconnectedness between fashion and nature.

A 1775 robe à l’anglaise with a naturalistic pattern of fruit and flowers, illustrated a movement towards simple dress, influenced by philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, who urged a return to nature. A dress by Alexander McQueen from his acclaimed final collection in 2010, presented a meditation upon Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and concern over climate change.

More than a survey of flora, fauna, and geology as merely decorative, the exhibition revealed the natural world as a nexus of ideas and symbolism in fashion design. Force of Nature aimed to contribute to today’s important, ongoing conversation about society’s relationship with the natural world and humankind’s place within it.

Read more about Force of Nature.

The work of FIT students and faculty took center stage in the Gallery FIT exhibition Crafting Change. Organized by the textile/surface design department in conjunction with New York Textile Month, the works featured in Crafting Change used long-established techniques in a modern context to explore the shifting boundaries between art, design, and technology. Projects bridging science and textiles have the potential to revolutionize the fashion and textile industries, leading us to a more sustainable future. These works were promising examples of how FIT is successfully encouraging interdisciplinary mergers between craft, technology, and sustainability to usher textile arts into the 21st century.